Dedicated to

Prof N.N.Wig

A Full Life, Well Led, In The Service of Psychiatry and Mankind.

And With So Much More To Follow

[Read further at:http://www.msmonographs.org/showBackIssue.asp?issn=0973-1229;year=2005;volume=3;issue=2;month=November ]

 

 

ISSN 0973-1229                                               ISBN 81-89753-12-6.

Where is Medicine Heading? Pointers and Directions from Recent Law Suits Against Industry: Medicine As A Corporate Enterprise, Patient Welfare Centered Profession, Or Patient Welfare Centered Professional Enterprise?, Mens Sana Monographs, III:4-5, Nov 2005- Feb 2006.

 

Ajai R. Singh

Shakuntala A. Singh

 

 

Preface 

 

Medicine today is at the crossroads. There is as great an influence of new knowledge as of sponsors. On the one hand the latter ensure the faster output of new knowledge, on the other, they try to skew its growth innits favour. Moreover, industry influence has come under the scanner of patients, activists and regulatory authorities. This has resulted in a spate of lawsuits against industry. This phenomenon is hardly likely to abate. In fact if present portents are any indication, it will increase, taking in its grasp clinicians and researchers too. Medicine and its ancillaries will have to do some serious soulsearching to keep themselves firmly on course and prevent hijacking of their patient welfare agenda. A number of short term and long term measures will have to be put into place to ensure this. Short term measures are related to preventing malpractice at various levels because of ulterior motives, both of clinicians and sponsors. Long term measures are related to how we wish to chart the course of medicine in the future. For the latter, it is time a serious dialogue ensues on whether i) medicine shouls become a corporate enterprise; ii) remain a patient welfare centered profession; or iii) become a patient welfare oriented professional enterprise.

This monograph is an effort to promote this dialogue.

 

It is most lovingly dedicated to one of the doyens of Indian Psychiatry, Prof N.N. Wig.

 

About the authors

Ajai R. Singh, M.D., Editor, Mens Sana Monographs, is a Psychiatrist who has earlier worked with the WHO Collaborating Center In Psychopharmacology In India.

Shakuntala A. Singh, Ph.D., Deputy Editor, Mens Sana Monographs, is Principal and Reader and Head, Dept. Of Philosophy, Joshi-Bedekar College, Thane, India. She has earlier worked as a Fellow the Indian Council of Philosophical Research and the University Grants Commission.

They are Founders of the Mens Sana Research Foundation, India.

...........................................................

 

 

CONTENTS

Monograph release i

Mens Sana Monographs Editorial Board, About Us iii

Welcome to the Editorial Board iv

Instructions to Contributors vi

About the Authors viii

Preface ix

Call for Papers: What Medicine Means To Me x

Dedication to Dr. N. N. Wig xiii

Earlier Mens Sana Monographs xiv

Brief Biodata: Dr. N.N. Wig 1

Prof. N.N. Wig : Pioneer, Conscientious Researcher, and a Multi-faceted Personality - Anirudh K. Kala 3

Prof. N.N. Wig : A Larger than Life Persona who Makes People Feel Immediately at Ease - Ravinder A. Kala 7

THE ACADEMIA-INDUSTRY SYMPOSIUM 11-51

Where is Medicine Heading? Pointers and Directions from Recent Law Suits Against Industry: Medicine As A Corporate Enterprise, Patient Welfare Centered Profession, Or Patient Welfare Centered Professional Enterprise? Ajai Singh Shakuntala Singh

Musings : Junkets and Trinkets Ajai Singh 13

Editorial : Emphasising Prevention, Developing Therapies Complementing Approaches 15

THE TENTH MONOGRAPH 19

Abstract 19

Introduction 20

The Problem 21

Spanner in the Works 22

Ominous portents: law suits against industry 23

Financial Condition of Pharma Majors on the Decline 25

The Recent Ranbaxy Showing 26

Why price deflation, increased R and D spending and litigation costs? 27

Set Rethinking Process into Motion 28

Is The Spate of Lawsuits Going to Increase? 29

What do These Lawsuits Indicate? 30

Indian Pharma Industry 31

Remedy, Short term and Long 32

A. Short Term Measures 32

B. Long Term Measures 33

1. Medicine as a Corporate Enterprise 34

2. Medicine as a Patient Welfare Centered Profession 37

The Choice 40

Resolution: Medicine as a Patient Welfare Centered Professional Enterprise 41

Summing up : Medicine as a Patient Welfare Centered Professional Enterprise 46

Decide which side to be on 47

Concluding Remarks 48

References 50

Questions that this monograph raises 51

Call for poems in MSM Poems Section on Medicine, Health and Human Behaviour 52

MSM Poems

Silences, Parliament  Ajai Singh 53

Readers Respond N. N. Wig 54

Obituary

   Dr. A. Venkoba Rao 55

   Dr. S. G. Mudgal 56

Subscription 58

Back Issues 59

Advertisement Rates 60

Index 61

 

........................................................................................................